AFS St. John's Subgroup AGM Minutes 2024
Date: July 16, 2024
AGM Held at St. Thomas Church, Military Rd, St. John’s, NL
Members in attendance:
Yvonne O’Keefe, Michael Hann, Allyson Garrison, Leslie White, Fizza Rahman, Kendra Carrigan, Ryan Power, Andrew McGrath, Jarret Quinlan, Robert Carew and Florence Tat.
Guest Speaker: Shawn Gillis – AFS Group Vice President
Meeting called to order at 05:30 with round table introductions and a welcome from the president.
Adoption of the Agenda – Agenda was reviewed. Yvonne O’Keefe called for the adoption of the agenda, seconded by Fizza Rahman. Motion Carried.
Minutes from the last AGM were reviewed, and there were no corrections or additions. Yvonne O’Keefe moved for the approval of the minutes, seconded by Allyson Garrison. Motion Carried.
Yvonne O’Keefe presented the President’s Report:
Yvonne detailed that due to the Return to Office changes, PIPSC has protested NPSW (National Public Service Week) and has withdrawn from any involvement in UMA (Union Management Approach) training.
Flex time, which was previously piloted in Quebec, is planned to be rolled out as a pilot in the Atlantic Region in September. Similar to compressed, this will allow members to bank extra hours worked, for use at a future date, or take hours off to be made up at a future date. It’s a separate system from compressed.
PIPSC AFS delegates supported a motion of non-confidence in the Commissioner due to the recent decisions regarding onsite presence. This motion was presented to the Commissioner and Minister.
Yvonne elaborated on discussions that she had with the Director of the Newfoundland zone this past year. This includes discussion surrounding ‘snow days,’ the fact that there is no dress code yet some team leaders are telling their employees what not to wear, virtual training offered to NL employees which was outside the office hours and employee’s scheduled hours. Finally Yvonne shared concerns about fire safety and the fact that many members do not even know what a cross over floor is, the fact that some doors are automatically locked for re-entry during a fire alarm (except on crossover floors) and the fact that the stairwells are built to be fire safe.
Yvonne O’Keefe moved for her report to be accepted, seconded by Andrew Mcgrath. Motion Carried.
Financial Report was presented by Fizza Rahman.
Fizza pointed our that there were some amendments required to the financial report. Net income was reflecting a negative, however the opening balance per the account was incorrect. Actual balance should reflect $1,832.24. There were two uncashed cheques, one for reimbursements to Yvonne and a donation to the Wellness Committee for $50. These items will be followed up on.
Fizza Rahman moved for her report to be accepted, seconded by Andrew Mcgrath. Motion Carried.
Discussion surrounding Budget for 2024
Fizza explained that we were expecting an allotment of $2570 for the 2024 year, budgeting for AGM, Christmas Draws and Member Engagement.
Fizza Rahman moved for her budget report to be accepted, seconded by Allyson Garrison. Motion Carried.
Changes to Bylaw 3.1
Yvonne introduced a motion to update Bylaw 3.1 regarding those covered by our subgroup. The bylaw originally read “Every Regular member of the AFS group working at the St John’s TSO shall be a regular member of the Subgroup”. Proposed to change the wording to be “Every Regular member of the AFS group working in Newfoundland and Labrador…”
Yvonne moved for this change to be accepted. Seconded by Fizza. Motion Carried.
Changes to Bylaw 6.3
Yvonne introduced a motion to update Bylaw 6.3, related to Term of Office. This bylaw originally read “The term of office shall be two years with the exception of the first election, when half of the members shall be elected for a two year term and the remainder for a one year term.” Yvonne proposed for all those elected to be elected for two year term regardless.
Yvonne moved for this change to be accepted. Seconded by Mike. Motion Carried.
Elections
Election was conducted by Guest Shawn Gillis.
All positions were up for election include President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and 7 Member at Large Positions.
President - Mike Hann nominated Yvonne O’Keefe. She accepted. No other nominations so acclaimed.
Vice-President - Mike Hann nominated Allyson Garrison. She accepted. No other nominations so Acclaimed.
Treasurer – Allyson Garrison nominated Fizza Rahman. She accepted. No other nominations so acclaimed.
Secretary – Yvonne O’Keefe nominated Mike Hann. He accepted. No other nominations so acclaimed.
Member at Large – 7 positions were up for election. Allyson Garrison nominated Leslie White, Mike Hann nominated Ryan Power, Fizza Rahman nominated Kendra Carrigan, Yvonne O’Keefe nominated Andrew Mcgrath, Robert Carew, Florence Tat and Jarret Quinlan. All accepted. No other nominations, all 7 positions were acclaimed.
Guest Speaker – Shawn Gillis VP of AFS Group
Shawn spoke to the recent contract and implementation of the latest contract. He also spoke to the refocus on government spending. CRA’s portion is 154.8 million and expected cost savings were to be through attrition, the suspension of the conversion policy and travel cuts. Shawn spoke to WAA’s and the voluntary nature of remote work. If WAAs need to be considered case by case, and if refused reasons must be provided in writing. Employer is refusing to discuss onsite presence. Goals and objectives for AFS group; recruit members, reduce rands, mobilize to protect AFS jobs.
Round Table
Robert Carew mentioned that some IT staff have to be on site 100% of the time, even those working with HQ.
There was small discussion surrounding rumours around compressed schedules in September. If employer makes a blanket statement surrounding the denying of compressed, bring this to a Steward.
Motion to Adjourn by Andrew Mcgrath and Seconded by Mike Hann. Meeting adjourned 07:20 pm.